Some time ago, we asked this Talmudic Question: Can you think of a place on Earth where there is free water but no microbes? (A sterile flask of nutrient broth in a lab, the insides of the body, or an IV bag in a hospital don't count.) Someone answered that perhaps deep in Antarctica there would be a buried lake that was sterile. Not so. The early returns from the deep drilling of the buried Vostok Lake indicated the presence of microbes even there. But other sites in that continent come close to being just such an environment because their microbial population is unusually thin. So, let’s rephrase the question: “Can you think of natural places where there is free water but, comparatively speaking, few microbes?” (Pick your own limit, but